David’s Adventures Through the World of Music Creation and Sonic Exploration

I remember when it was 1997 (or was it 1998? I don’t really remember) and Steinberg introduced their new technology called Virtual Studio Technology, but today most commonly known as the abbreviation VST. Okay, it might have been earlier than 1997 too, but I do remember specifically when I tweaked Neon for the first time in 1997, or 1998. It was the beginning of something new. It didn’t sound that good compared to the hardware I had back in those days, but it was a new concept - that’s for sure.

Later came TC|Works Mercury-1 which (back in those days) sounded fabulous compared to what was out there. It could play four sounds simultaneously, if you had computer enough, and it reminded of a Roland SH-101 but, dare I say it, more powerful.

Back in those days you would load up a sound on your hardware synthesizer, record the MIDI to your host and then you change the MIDI track output to the soft-synth instead. Since it would use almost every cycle available in your massive Pentium 2 CPU running at 450 MHz you quickly bounced the track and used it as pure audio.

I must have missed the turn-around point when you started doing it backwards.

Today, you load up a sound in any VST instrument, use a MIDI keyboard to record the MIDI data on to a track and then… Then you start fiddling with your hardware synthesizers. You change the MIDI track output to your massive MIDI interface and dial up a great sound on the hardware unit connected to it via the data protocol from the 1970’s. Then, you record its audio onto a new track and mutes the MIDI.

I wonder what’s next.

Cubase is ready stretching some audio files for me since I’m cranking up a dull track from sleepy 128 bpm to more dance-y 139.

Last night I dreamt that Gforce Software did a software version of the Oberheim Matrix 12. Sadly enough, when waking up they hadn’t post anything regarding that on their website.

One thing for sure though. I’d buy it without hesitating. Seriously.

I had my first Clavia Nord Wave hands on experience the first day it was available at JAM and after playing a couple of presets I dug into the depths of wavetables and samples versus subtractive synthesis. The layout is great! Nord Lead 2X meets Nord Lead 3, but it reminds more of the NL2 due to the lack of the fantastic (and expensive) knobs and LEDs on the NL3.

The first sound I tweaked was a simple and slightly detuned saw oscillator patch (mindXpander and Laserdance fans will recognize it as the classic staccato chords, one of the main ingredients in the production) and after that I tweaked a bassdrum using nothing but resonance and the tube effect. The tube effect is really neat and can really make the patches scream like on the Nord Lead 2 (which had a distortion effect with a setting of on or off). What’s missing though, when it comes to filters, is the fabulous filter LP+notch found on the Nord Lead 2.

Well, I could spoil the nice surprises which you’ll find when you try out the synthesizer yourself - but I won’t. Just go down to a store near you and give it a go.

So, would I want one? YES!